Our Earth is an important place. We live on it and it provides our food and shelter.

But when we use too much of our land, it comes at a cost. We like to change and disturb the land and our activities causes the land quality to become worse, or deteriorate. This is called Land Degradation.

Land Degradation leads to terrible problems like erosion and loss of plants.

It seems impossible for a bit of water

to wear down so much rock, but over long periods of time, the water is able to break bits off as tiny fragments and erode the rock.

Erosion is mostly natural but

human activity can make it

happen faster. This is usually

bad because it can cause land-

slides and it washes away rich

soil on farms.

Natural causes of erosion include wind, water and ice.

We cause erosion through clearing land and introducing animals

Increased Salinity

Salinity is the amount of salt in soil or water.

There are two types of salinity: primary and secondary salinity.

When the salt is exposed and spread naturally across the environment, it is called primary salinity

Secondary salinity is caused when humans clear or alter the land and makes the salt rise to the surface

The picture below shows the process of salinity.

Salinity causes plants to die and leaves vast wastelands

Decreased water quality

Decrease of water quality is also a

mostly natural process but humans

can speed it up. The natural process

is called 'eutrophication' which is

when sediment collects in the water

and the oxygen level drops.

The picture on the left shows

algae growing on the surface

of a lake. This happened

because there is not enough

oxygen in the lake.

Decreased biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of plants and animals in an environment. All organisms are important no matter how big or small because they all play a part in supporting each other.

We easily spoil these relationships by logging or illegally hunting and it leads to massive extinction.

Mining

Bigger industries develop and puts stress on the environment

Farming (Agriculture)

Ussing soil too much drains its nutrients

Land Clearing

This causes erosion which can destroy the land and cause landslides and also destroys the habitats of native wildlife

Overgrazing

Overgrazing doesn't give the land a chance to renew its sources and animals' hooves destroys the soil.